A Communal Reading of Pat Lowther's A Stone Diary, April 2, 2025
an evening of poetry and companionship at Green College in Vancouver in partnership with Dead Poets Reading Series
Hi Friends,
For our final event of the year, The Whole Cloth Reading Series welcomes you to a community reading of Pat Lowther’s A Stone Diary in collaboration with Dead Poets Reading Series.
On the 50th Anniversary of Vancouver poet Pat Lowther’s death, we’ll gather in her memory to read her final collection A Stone Diary together. For this event, listeners take turns becoming readers as we voice each poem. We’ll have copies of the book for folks to read from and follow along on the page (and take home after). We’ll also be joined by the community around Dead Poets Reading Series, a series dedicated to keeping the work of dead poets alive in our ears.
April 2, 2025
5 - 6:30 pm (with light refreshments)
Piano Lounge, Graham House, Green College, University of British Columbia
A note for our long-distance friends: while Whole Cloth events are usually live-streamed to welcome our poetry community far and wide, this community event will be recorded as audio-only and shared after the event.
The Writer: Pat Lowther
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, poet and activist Pat Lowther (1935-1975) published her first collection, The Difficult Flowering (Very Stone House), in 1968. Four years later, Lowther published The Age of the Bird (Blackfish Press), a long poem expressing her concerns for South American revolutionary politics. Her next book of poetry, Milk Stone (Borealis Press, 1972) quickly followed. Her writing career was taking off when she went missing in 1975; her body was found in a creek weeks later, and her husband was convicted of her murder.
A former co-chair of the League of Canadian Poets, Lowther was memorialized by the League of Canadian Poets Pat Lowther Award, which is inclusive of cis women, trans women, and non-binary writers who feel comfortable being recognized by a women’s prize. She is also the mother of four children, including BC poet Christine Lowther, who cannot attend but contributed to our planning of this event.
The Book: A Stone Diary
Pat Lowther's fourth book, A Stone Diary, (Oxford University Press, 1977) was published two years after she was murdered at age 40 by her husband. This collection represented a potential new stage for the poet, who held promise as a major presence in Canadian poetry. Her previous books, This Difficult Flowering (1968), The Age of the Bird (1972), and Milk Stone (1974) demonstrated her interest in mothering, relationships, and nature. A Stone Diary deepens her interest in feminism, power imbalance, and the delicacy of life and includes a series of poems concerning Chilean politics and others addressed to Neruda. "Lowther is a poet very conscious of destructive forces, but is herself essentially a preserver and renewer," writes Elizabeth Jones in Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender.
The Readers: You and Me and Anyone
For this community event, we’ll designate a Reader’s Chair and a Next-to-Read Chair (and maybe also a Next-Next-to-Read Chair). Each reader will read a poem (or a section of a poem) from the Reader’s Copy of A Stone Diary, then rejoin the audience while the Next-to-Read person shifts into the Reader’s Chair. [This may sound complicated, but it’s easier to do than it is to describe!] All present are welcome to read! No one is required to read! The book passes to a new voice with each new poem.
Our Co-Hosts: Dead Poets Reading Series
Since 2007, the Dead Poets Reading Series has facilitated presentations on the work of deceased poets by living poets, scholars, and lovers of poetry. The organizing began with David Zieroth who started the series in North Vancouver. After a brief hiatus, the bimonthly series was started up again by Christopher Levenson, Diane Tucker, and Rob Taylor. Over time the organizing team grew to include Sandy Shreve, Kate Braid, and later Joanne Arnott and Shazia Hafiz Ramji. Currently, the organizing team consists of Kevin Spenst, Raoul Fernandes, Jane Munro, Elena Johnson, Fiona Tinwei Lam, and Alan Hill. Readings are as varied as the poets themselves, with some presenters sharing stories of the poets they knew personally and other presenters just diving into their chosen author's poems. To learn more about the series, upcoming readings, and the extensive list of poets covered so far, please check out http://www.deadpoetslive.com
The Event: The Whole Cloth Reading Series
An experience in deep listening, Whole Cloth Reading Series events typically feature a single poet who reads an entire book of poems from cover to cover. For this particular reading, we’ll come together to take turns reading Pat Lowther’s A Stone Diary.
While poets devote immense craft to shaping a book, public readings tend to favor selections and excerpts. Uniting writer and audience in a celebration of expansive and unhurried attention, this series creates a rare environment for the investigation of poetry, sound, delivery, and reciprocity. Each event features a transformative (short!) book and concludes in time for a cordial reception and conversation.
Warm best from your hosts,
Bronwen Tate and Elee Kraljii Gardiner